Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 309, Issue 8013, 26 March 1977, Pages 692-694
The Lancet

Screening for Disease
A STRATEGY TO DETECT β-THALASSÆMIA MINOR

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(77)92128-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Over the past three years 25 302 adults in Kentucky have been tested for hæmoglobinopathies, and of these, hæmoglobin A2 was measured on 3734, 1973 with microcytosis and 1761 within the normal range. The best methods of detecting β-thalassæmia minor using red-blood-cell indices were compared. No method detected all heterozygotes. A new method was devised consisting of three parts: (1) hæmoglobin electrophoresis, (2) calculation of the product of the square of the mean corpuscular volume (M.C.V.) multiplied by the mean corpuscular hæmoglobin (M.C.H.) measured in units of one hundred, (3) A2 determination on all AA samples with (M.C.V.)2 × M.C.H. <1530 and on those with variant genotypes consistent with thalassæmia. In this series this new method detected 137 out of 138 heterozygotes with 4·4% false-positives.

References (22)

  • A.H. Schmaier et al.

    J. Pediat.

    (1974)
  • J.M. England et al.

    Lancet

    (1973)
  • W.C. Mentzer

    Lancet

    (1973)
  • H. Lehmann et al.

    Man's Hæmoglobins

    (1974)
  • B. Malamos et al.

    Br. J. Hœmat.

    (1962)
  • S.R. Brook et al.

    J. clin. Path.

    (1974)
  • J.A. Stockman et al.

    J. Lab clin. Med.

    (1975)
  • A. Gouttas
  • H.G. Kunkel et al.

    J. clin. Invest.

    (1957)
  • D. Kabat et al.
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text